No douchey minuets for me, thank you very much

Each year on New Year's Day, New Zealand's national classical radio station counts down the top 50 pieces of classical music, as voted for by the public. Here were the top 10 for this past year:

10. Elgar: Cello Concerto

9. Allegri: Miserere

8. Beethoven: Symphony No. 6

7. Bach: Mass in B minor

6. Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5

5. Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1

4. Strauss: Four Last Songs

3. Handel: Messiah

2. Mozart: Clarinet Concerto

1. Vaughan-Williams: The Lark Ascending

Pretty standard stuff, which doesn't change much from year to year; the Vaughan-Williams has been number one for most of the last 10 years that they've done the countdown. But this list has caused me to ponder what my choices would be. The top 10 pieces of classical music ever; surely an impossible task! The ten on the above list are certainly all masterpieces, perhaps with the exception of the Allegri, which is beautiful, but nonetheless based on repetition, and pretty much never performed with the divisions/elaborations that would make it more interesting. 

I think, instead of passing judgment on music and coming up with the top 10 pieces, I will endeavour to list some of my favourite pieces ever, in a variety of genres: Here goes!

Symphony

Shostakovich 11, which really has to be heard live to appreciate fully. I remember hearing it for the first time at the Aspen Music Festival in 1999. Halfway through the second movement, as it builds to the shattering evocation of the 1905 Bloody Sunday massacre at the Winter Palace, St Petersburg, the entire percussion section stood up as one, moved forward to their instruments, raised their sticks ... and then launched into the musical violence. It was unbelievable. 

Mozart 41. Brilliant and exciting from beginning to end. 

Concerto

Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2

Bach: Violin Concerto in E Major

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1

Mozart: Piano Concerto no. 23 in A Major

Sibelius: Violin Concerto

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4

Hmm, I'm rather biased towards violin and piano! One of the main irritants in concertos (and in fact any music) for me is the lack of a satisfying last movement. Which is why none of Mozart's violin concertos, with their douchey minuets, make the list. Nor the Beethoven violin concerto, with its annoying rondo. 

Chamber Music

Beethoven: String Quartet Op. 132

Haydn: String Quartet Op. 76 No. 2 "Fifths"

Schumann: String Quartet Op. 41 No. 3

Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor

Chausson: Piano Trio in G minor

Again, these were chosen because they're beautiful, powerful, and complete packages - not just a piece with a great first movement or a great slow movement.

Sonatas

Bach: Sonata for solo violin in D minor, BWV 1004

Beethoven: Piano Sonata in F minor "Appassionata"

Brahms: Violin Sonata in G Major

Enescu: Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor

Choral/Vocal Music

Bach: St Matthew Passion

Pärt: Stabat Mater

Lasso: Prophetiae Sibyllarum

Monteverdi: Lamento della Ninfa

Lotti: Crucifixus à 8

Schumann: Dichterliebe

R. Strauss: 'Morgen'

Tavener: Song for Athene

There are of course, hundreds of other individual arias, movements, cantatas, character pieces which are so amazing and beautiful and should be on any list. But I'll stop there. It's so damn difficult to narrow it down. I'm listening to the Lark Ascending while I'm writing this, and really, it should be on my list too - as should most of the pieces on the New Zealand list. Some of them, like Messiah, and the Bruch violin concerto, are so overplayed that they become nauseating, but the fact is they're so popular because they're so good. TOO MUCH GOOD MUSIC IN THE WORLD - AAAARGGHHH!